This is another quick fix dish that I have come to love. I am a fan of ennegayi which has a combination of eggplants and peanuts. But I had only the huge eggplant that we get in any grocery store here (and sometimes I am very lazy to do stuffing). So I made the normal stir fry with eggplants and potatoes and added crushed peanuts. It turned out very delicious. It has become a regular at our home for couple of months now.
It tastes great when made little spicy, so increase the chili powder if you can handle more spice. Fry for a bit longer to make the eggplants and potatoes crunchy.
Ingredients: 1 cup chopped eggplant 1 cup chopped potatoes 1/2 tea spn chili powder 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract(optional) 5-6 curry leaves 1/2 cup peanuts Oil Salt
Method: Roast peanuts and grind into a coarse powder. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Add eggplants, potatoes, salt and fry for 5-6mins. Now add chili powder, fry for sometime, close the lid and let it cook on a medium heat (do not add water). Add the tamarind if using and mix well. Now add the peanut powder. Mix well. Serve hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
Many Konkanis who live in the coastal areas are seafood lovers. This goes to such an extent that, some people call all seafood as “vegetarian” :)). I have seen some people who eat fish 6 days a week. One day -usually Saturday or Monday, are purely vegetarian. Some have started eating chicken from the last one generation, but still seafood wins hands down. I think it is mainly because we get very fresh river as well as sea fish as we live on the coast. Not that all the Konkanis are non-vegetarians, many are purely vegetarian, but today’s post is all about seafood lovers.
My Aayi was a vegetarian before her marriage. But after she got married, she started cooking as well as eating fish. Her fish dishes are just out-of-the-world. Usually all Konkani seafood dishes are served quite hot. At my home, we all love seafood. But SIL and I, not so much. Pappa and Aayi like it, but they won’t miss it if they don’t eat it for a while. My bro and husband are huge fans, so whenever they are at home, fish is cooked.
Everything changed for me after we moved to US. I have tried lot of different seafood here. But it is never the same. Our local Chinese grocery store has some “known” fishes but most of the time they are spoiled by the time I bring them home. Since they are frozen, the taste is never the same even if I buy the freshest looking fish. I thought it was because the way I cook them, but when Aayi visited us last year, she tried and the result was same. They just don’t taste good.
So when we visited India in March, we were all set to eat some of our favorite fish dishes. The day we reached Bangalore, my bro took us to “Fish Land” – An old style restaurant near Majestic, which serves Konkani style sea food. For the first time, I finished everything in my thali (that’s an achievement, if you know me). Then we went to seafood heaven. Our native. Aayi prepared us everything that we loved. So I decided to write this post and clicked few pictures.
This is one of the favorite Konkani seafood thalis which everyone loves. Writing about this is like a torture for me as I know I won’t be able to eat it until I visit India again :(. But anyway, I want it on this blog, so here it goes.
– Plain rice (some people like to serve boiled rice/matta rice but at my home, we always eat white rice) – Alle kande ambat – Kokum kadi – Bangde dhoddak – Bangde fry – Mango pickle – Onion rings and lemon
